Civil War Field Test

In April through June, 2012, 22 California eighth-grade teachers taught significant portions of the History Blueprint’s first unit, the Civil War, to their classes. The pilot teachers gave detailed feedback to improve the curriculum and submitted student work on selected assessments from the unit. The History Blueprint team then analyzed the student work. Our goals were to improve the Civil War unit, apply the lessons learned to the units that are currently being developed, and begin sharing student work and teacher evaluation online so that teachers can benefit from each other’s expertise. Teachers can also use the student work samples and evaluations to gauge their own students’ performance in comparison to other eighth-grade students.

Student Work and Analysis -- Student work comes from two writing assignments from the History Blueprint Civil War unit, the formative assessment from lesson two, “Evaluating the Secession Argument,”and unit final assessment from lesson eight, “Civil War Freedom Essay” (forthcoming).

If you've piloted any of the curriculum and would like to send feedback or student work to help us make it better, write to us.